What To Do About the Latest Security Breaches?

Cybercriminals have been having success as of late, swiping customer account info from well-known companies and organizations in a series or cyber security breaches.

Target, Kickstarter, Comcast, Bell and many other companies have suffered security breaches. In fact, your account is likely among those stolen in the world’s biggest data breaches. Due to these attacks, customer information has fallen into the hands of hackers and cybercriminals. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, one-third of people affected by security breaches become victims of identity theft. This is up from just three years ago when security breach victims only had a 10 per cent chance of having identity theft perpetrated against them.

Password Stolen?

Whenever you hear of a security breach, it is recommended that you change your passwords for those accounts as soon as possible! This is usually easily done by logging into your account and looking for “account”, “account options”, “settings” or “profile” depending on the website.

Changing online passwords can take some time and effort, but it will be worth it. If you need some help coming up with new, secure passwords, try our Password Generator.

Recent Security Breaches

Check out some of the latest security breaches that might have put your accounts at risk:

Comcast: The United States’ largest Internet and cable provider had at least 34 of its servers hacked by NullCrew FTS. This breach included access to email address and other data. If you have any services with Comcast, even if you don’t have their Xfinity email service, it is recommended you change your password for that account. The attacks occurred in December of 2013 and in early 2014.

Kickstarter: The crowd funding website announced Feb. 17, 2014 that usernames, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers and encrypted passwords were accessed. Although the passwords were encrypted, Kickstarter recommended that users change their password, and other sites where they use the same password.

Forbes: Long trusted for its business information, the Forbes website was comprised, with the Syrian Electronic Army taking credit for the attack. On Feb. 14, 2014, Forbes acknowledged the hack on its Facebook page and said that any users registered with the site should change their passwords. The passwords compromised in the attack were encrypted. SEA posted a table with more than 16,000 names.

Bell Canada: Canada’s largest communications company said in early February 2014 that account information of 22,400 small business customers was compromised. This included both usernames and passwords. These were posted online with the Nullcrew claiming responsibility. Five valid credit cards were reportedly included.

Protect Your Accounts

Make sure you use strong passwords – passwords that include both lower and uppercase letters, special characters and numbers. If you aren’t sure how secure your passwords are, test them in our Password Strength Checker.